$80 Per Week in 2010 — Week 35

I’m on a mission this year: spend $80 or less per week on groceries for my family of four! After reconciling all our expenses for 2009, all the while remembering the splurges during a special family celebration and replenishing of food storage, I realized I could and would do better in 2010. With the skills I’ve obtained, and the deals on some web sites I’ve discovered, “I hereby pledge to lower my food budget this year!”

I just finished reading through a blog of an eating experiment done in September 2008: $1/per person per day (just a couple, no kids, just food for the day). It was interesting, but even the couple who did it admit that they had no real reason for doing it, other than to see what it would be like. (Their blog led to discussion about socio-economic issues — remember this was fall of 2008 — and global economies.) But it did get me thinking — again — about our abundance and eating patterns. This led to a decision to start showing you what I actually do with our food budget. I get some fabulous grocery deals, and use them (see my Weekly Dinner Deal posts). But recently some readers asked how their low weekly budget can handle a dinner with friends, or a holiday barbecue. Maybe I’ve been doing this for so long that it’s second nature, but it’s really quite easy to live frugally while still enjoying friends and such. So look for more detail. Now, for this week‘s spending:

OY!

BagNSave: I made a few trips to BnS this week, first to take advantage of last week’s sale prices before they expired on Tuesday, then a good trip for this week’s deals, and finally one last trip for more deals after printing more coupons. Here’s what I got in the way of food:

SuperSaver: I had to go for the steak deal! I found other great deals, too. Okay, so it seems like I bought some unnecessary things here. But stay tuned, because we will enjoy them while staying in a very reasonable budget. Gaze upon the savings:

SuperTarget: I find great bargains on two trips to Target. But I’m noticing much of them are on highly processed foods. While I give much of this kind of thing to Project Hope, I’ve decided to wean our family of it. More for the food pantry! Grocery spending at this store this week:

Also, this week I was given some Cheerios for FREE! Thank you, Coupon Dawn, for sharing your extras. We kept one box and the others went to Project Hope.

This week for just food I spent $119.99 — about $40 over budget, or half-again! This puts me at $221.13 under budget for the year! Without the trips to SuperTarget, I would have spent just $78.88, which is just below my budget. My concept of budget, of course, is that I carry both underage and overage to the next week. This is what allows me to spend $40 over budget this week. Look, I’m still below my YTD budget. So don’t say, “YIKES!” so quickly — you’ll see how this all plays out. (Remember those weeks when I only spent $50?)

So my goal for next week is to really reduce my shopping. That’s going to happen naturally, given what’s on our schedules. The focus will be on produce, milk and stuff we run out of (which shouldn’t be a whole lot). But I am going to show you how to put these bargains into real life use.